HipHop can improve your server’s PHP performance. No, I do not mean the hip hop you might hear on your favorite rapper’s latest album. In this case, HipHop refers to some PHP improvements originally created by Facebook and then released as free and open source software. HipHop can significantly increase PHP web application speed and has helped Facebook maintain a reasonably good performance level despite the astronomical demands on its servers.

HipHop is an execution engine for PHP that is designed to handle higher loads and increase performance. It was originally a C++ compiler that would compile PHP code into a binary, offering nearly 6 times the performance. In order to increase compatibility, Facebook eventually created a PHP virtual machine called HHVM (HipHop Virtual Machine) that has reached identical performance to HPHPc, while also including full support for PHP and all its functions.

The source code for HipHop is available on GitHub and also available as a prebuilt package for an Ubuntu server. You can find out more information about HipHop for PHP by visiting its Facebook page and joining the community discussion.